Memorial 


Nathaniel  djeunt, 


UCSB   LIB.RARy 


THE   LIFE   AND   CHARACTER 

OF 

NATHANIEL  HE  WIT,  D.  D, 


PREACHED  AT  HIS  FUNERAL, 


IX   THE   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH,  BRIDGEPORT,  CONN. 
FEBRUARY  6,  1867. 


LYMAN    H.   ATWATER,   D.  D., 

PROFESSOR  OF   INTELLECTUAL   AND    MORAL     PHILOSOPHY   IX   THE    COLLEGE  OF   XEW  JERSEY. 
AT  PP.1XCETOX. 


published  by  Request. 


NEW    YORK: 

PRINTED    BY     EDWARD     0.     JENKINS, 
No.   20   NORTH    WILLIAM  STREET. 
1867. 


DISCOURSE. 


"  He  being  dead  yet  speaketh." — HEBREWS  xi.  4. 

.  WE  have  met  to  pay  our  last  tribute  of  respect  to 
a  great  and  good  man.  Few  die  whose  life  speaks 
with  greater  emphasis  and  solemnity  after  their 
death. 

My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Hewit  began  in  May, 
1835 — nearly  thirty-two  years  ago — just  as  I,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-two,  was  beginning  to  minister  to 
the  church  in  Fairfield,  of  which  a  few  years  pre- 
vious, from  January  4,  1818,  to  December  18,  1828, 
he  had  been  the  honored  and  beloved  Pastor.  This 
acquaintance  soon  ripened  into  the  closest  intimacy, 
which  continued,  with  little  interruption  or  abate- 
ment, through  the  almost  score  of  years  of  my  pas- 
torate in  a  field,  where  I  was  at  once  his  successor 
and  near  neighbor.  We  unbosomed  ourselves  to 
each  other  with  all  the  mutual  freedom  and  confi- 
dence, I  was  about  to  say,  of  brothers  ;  but  that 
savors  too  much  of  equality.  Shall  I  then  say,  of 
father  and  son,  of  teacher  and  pupil  ?  This,  too, 
might  look  as  if  there  was  an  attitude  of  magisterial 
superiority  on  his  part,  which,  however  justifiable, 
he  forbore  to  assume  ;  for*  with  the  intellect  of  a 


giant,  lie  had  the  simplicity  of  a  child.  His  relation 
to  me  is  best  expressed  by  saying  that  it  partook 
of  all  these  characters.  He  was  to  me  at  ouce 
father,  brother,  teacher — most  faithful,  tender,  in- 
structive— while  I  heard  him  with  love,  reverence 
and  profit.  In  these  relations  I  saw  him  completely 
unveiled,  without  disguise  or  reservation. 

As  his  successor,  also,  in  a  'field  which  he  occu- 
pied for  ten  years  of  a  powerful  and  fruitful  minis- 
try, I  had  large  opportunities  to  become  informed 
of  his  gifts,  his  traits,  his  achievements,  and  his 
peculiarities — physical,  intellectual,  moral,  relig- 
ious, ministerial.  The  periods  above  mentioned 
cover  most  of  the  prime  and  vigor  of  his  manhood  ; 
and  of  his  highest  success,  fame  and  influence,  as 
a  Pastor,  Orator,  Theologian,  Reformer — in  short, 
as  a  power  in  the  church  and  the  world.  It  is  now 
a  melancholy  pleasure,  as  I  stand  over  his  breath- 
less remains,  to  bear  testimony  to  his  rare  endow- 
ments and  virtues,  and  to  render  my  humble  trib- 
ute in  honor  of  his  memory. 

My  brethren,  a  mighty  man  is  fallen — a  man,  1 
hesitate  not  to  say,  among  the  most  extraordinary 
of  our  own  or  any  day — a  man  who  has  been  felt, 
for  the  last  half  century,  as  few  men  are  or  can  be 
felt.  That  imperial  form  and  visage  of  his,  which 
never  failed  to  impress  every  man;  Avoman  and 
child  that  beheld  it,  in  which  a  regal  majesty  and 
prophetic  solemnity  were  strangely  blended,  was 
but  the  index  of  the  man,  and  the  outbeaming  of 


his  soul.  But,  not  to  detain  you  with  vague  gener- 
alities, I  pass  at  once  to  the  great  events  of  his  life, 
and  the  more  specific  features  of  his  character. 

Xathantel  Hewit,  D.  D.,  was  born  in  New  Lon- 
don, Conn.,  August  28,  1788.  While  yet  a  boy,  he 
exhibited  tokens  of  that  great  mind  and  brilliant 
genius  which  afterwards  won  for  him  such  great 
celebrity.  He  was  'accordingly  prepared  for  Yale 
College,  which  he  in  due  time  entered.  He  was 
there  while  it  was  presided  over  by  that  admirable 
man,  Dr.  Timothy  D  wight.  Among  the  evidences 
of  his  extraordinary  fitness  for  this  office,  to  wield 
a  firm  and  commanding  yet  paternal  authority,  to 
kindle  the  admiration  of  youth  for  his  splendid 
abilities,  and  yet  win  their  hearts  by  his  tender 
sympathy,  judicious  counsel,  and  generous  aid,  is 
the  grateful  warmth  with  which  I  have  often  heard 
Dr.  Hewit  speak  of  his  own  obligations  to  this  great 
man,  for  the  inestimable  services  of  this  kind  ren- 
dered to  himself  during  his  college  course.  At  this 
period  of  his  life,  Dr.  Hewit  had  to  contend  with 
formidable  difficulties  ;  with  foes  which  have  often 
sufficed  to  crush  feebler  men — scanty  means,  ill 
health,  and  that  hypochondria  which  through  life 
ever  and  anon  haunted  and  clouded  and  baffled 
him.  and  brought  him  down  to  the  depths,  out  of 
which  he  cried  unto  the  Lord.  This  conspired 
with  all  other  spiritual  foes  to  intensify  that  con- 
viction of  absolute  dependence  on  divine  grace, 
which  was  so  marked  a  feature  of  his  theology  and 


religious  experience.  In  this  dire  conflict  he  had 
constant  recourse  to  Dr.  Dwight,  whose  judicious 
and  sympathetic  counsel,  and  timely  assistance  in 
his  spiritual  and  temporal  straits,  were,  as  he  often 
delighted  to  testify,  of  inestimable  benefit  to  him, 
and  contributed  much  to  prepare  the  way  for  his 
ultimate  introduction  into  the  gospel  ministry.  He 
graduated  with  honor  in  1808,  having  in  his  college 
course  given  no  dubious  tokens  of  those  mighty 
powers  which  were  so  conspicuous  in  his  after  career. 

Of  what  followed  until  some  years  later,  when 
he  became  pastor  of  the  Fairfield  church,  I  know 
little,  far  less  than  I  should,  had  it  ever  occurred 
to  me  that  Providence  might  ever  devolve  this 
painful  yet  pleasing  service  upon  me.  He  first 
determined  to  pursue  the  profession  of  law,  and 
for  this  purpose  entered  the  office  of  the  Hon.  Ly- 
man  Law,  of  New  London.  He  soon,  however, 
gave  it  up,  and  chose  the  gospel  ministry  instead. 
He  also  betook  himself  to  the  usual  resource  of  lib- 
erally educated  but  needy  young  men.  He  taught, 
how  long  I  cannot  say,  the  Academy  in  Plainfield 
in  this  State,  and  there  made  his  mark. 

There  he  studied  Theology  with  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Joel  Benedict,  pastor  of  the  Congregational  church 
in  that  place.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  Septem- 
ber 24,  1811.  He  supplied  several  congregations 
in  Vermont  and  elsewhere,  for  longer  or  shorter 
periods,  and  made  a  powerful  impression  by  his 
preaching. 


He,  however,  became  convinced  that  he  needed 
more  thorough  preparation  before  assuming  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  a  permanent  pastorate.  He  ac- 
cordingly repaired  for  a  time  to  Andover  Semi- 
nary, when  that  was  almost  the  only  public  training 
school  for  the  ministry  in  the  country.  He  was 
ordained  and  installed  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Plattsburg,  N.  Y.,  by  the  Presbytery  of 
Champlain,  July  5,  1815.  From  this  charge  he 
was  dismissed,  October  2,  1817.  He  was  installed 
in  Fairficld  on  the  14th  of  January,  1818. 

He  went  to  Plattsburg  in  the  spirit  of  true  mis- 
sionary zeal  and  self-sacrifice,  while  it  was  yet  little 
more  than  a  military  outpost,  in  a  comparatively 
new  country,  on  the  northern  border  of  the  Empire 
State.  The  severity  of  the  climate  was  so  injuri- 
ous to  his  health,  that  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
for  a  milder  region.  I  have  heard  him  say  that  his 
exposure  and  suffering  there  greatly  aggravated 
that  injury  to  what  he  was  wont  to  call  his  "  dead 
eye,"  which  made  it  sightless  ever  afterward.  His 
ministry  there  was  one  of  power  and  fruitfulness. 
He  left  the  impress  of  present  influence,  and  the 
presage  of  his  future  greatness  in  that  region  of 
country. 

On  the  26th  of  September,  1816,  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Rebecca  W.  Hillhonse,  daughter  of  the 
Hon.  James  Hillhouse,  of  New  Haven,  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  and  eminent  civilians  the 
country  has  produced.  He  has  left  his  monument, 


8 

more  enduring  than  brass,  not  only  in  the  great 
public  improvements  he  originated  and  pushed  to 
completion  in  New  Haven  and  Connecticut,  espe- 
cially in  securing  its  munificent  Common  School 
Fund,  but  in  the  renown  which  he  won  for  himself 
and  his  State  in  the  United  States  Senate.  She 
was  a  lady  of  great  native  intelligence,  highly  cul- 
tured, of  lovely  traits  of  character,  all  purified 
and  ennobled  by  Christian  piety.  Her  piety  was 
deep,  experimental,  earnest,  active.  She  was  a 
great  aid  to  her  husband,  not  only  in  conjugal  sym- 
pathy and  ministries  of  love  ;  in  furnishing  him, 
amid  all  his  labor  and  weariness,  the  refreshment 
of  a  happy  home  ;  but  as  seconding  his  labors,  by 
all  the  efforts  she  could  put  forth,  in  promoting 
female  piety  and  organized  activity  in  the  congre- 
gations to  which  he  ministered,  leading  "honorable 
women  not  a  few"  in  works  of  faith  and  labors  of 
love. 

At  the  time  of  his  dismission  from  Plattsburg, 
the  adjacent  parish  of  Fairfield  had  become  vacant 
by  the  dismission  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Heman  Hum- 
phrey, who  had  served  it  with  great  acceptance 
and  success  for  ten  years,  and  had  recently  been 
transferred  to  the  church  in  Pittsfield,  Mass.  Fair- 
field  was  then  a  post  of  no  small  difficulty.  The 
congregation  was  largely  composed  of  men  high  in 
the  legal  profession  and  in  public  life,  and  of  people 
of  that  grade  of  culture  and  refinement  which  would 
naturally  result  from  its  having  been  for  nearly 


two  centuries,  not  only  a  business  centre,  but  the 
county  and  court  town.  The  Sabbath  assemblies, 
too,  were  often  graced  with  the  presence  of  the 
most  eminent  lawyers  and  civilians  from  all  parts 
of  the  State,  drawn  there  to  the  courts,  and  not 
able,  as  now,  at  the  end  of  the  week,  to  reach  their 
homes  quickly  by  steam.  The  parish  had  long 
been  under  the  preaching  and  training  of  one  of  the 
ablest  and  best  pastors  in  the  country,  who  himself 
succeeded  to  distinguished  predecessors.  The  peo- 
ple found,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  great  difficulty 
in  supplying  his  place,  and  were  rapidly  falling 
into  threatening  divisions  and  parties.  Mr.  Hewit 
was  procured  to  supply  for  a  Sabbath.  The  effect 
was  electric.  The  congregation  was  at  once  capti- 
vated by  the  force  and  the  charm  of  his  sacred  elo- 
quence. Opposing  elements  were  speedily  carried 
as  by  storm,  and,  after  two  or  three  Sabbaths,  the 
church  and  congregation  were  united  and  enthusi- 
astic, not  only  in  calling  him,  but  offering  him  a  sal- 
ary which  they  had  never  before  deemed  themselves 
able  to  pay.  He  accepted  and  speedily  entered 
on  the  duties  of  a  mighty  ministry,  which  lasted 
till  God  called  him  to  another  field.  Of  his  minis- 
try there  ;  the  light,  fervor,  evangelism  and  elo- 
quence of  his  sermons  ;  their  profound  spiritual 
and  experimental  character  ;  their  bold  and  heroic 
rebuke  of  fashionable  vice  and  popular  immorali- 
ties ;  their  trumpet-tongued  rally  of  all  the  friends 
of  God  and  man  to  the  work  of  popular  reformation 


from  the  ruinous  sins  that  had  entwined  themselves 
in  all  the  usages  of  reputable  life  and  common  hos- 
pitality ;  of  drinking  customs  abolished,  and  intox- 
icating beverages  driven  into  disuse  ;  of  its  rich 
fruits  in  sinners  converted,  Christians  enlightened, 
corrected,  comforted,  edified,  I  cannot  now  fur- 
ther speak.  I  may,  however,  advert  to  incidents 
in  his  ministry  there,  illustrative  of  his  character 
and  endowments,  at  other  points  of  this  discourse. 
Dr.  Hewit's  eloquent  warnings  and  denunciations 
against  intemperance,  and  against  moderate  drink- 
ing as  its  prolific  cause,  in  his  own  and  other  pul- 
pits, soon  made  a  profound  impression  on  the  pub- 
lic mind  j  and,  if  they  provoked  bitter  and  desper- 
ate opposition,  also  enlisted  large  and  increasing- 
numbers  on  the  side  of  total  abstinence  from  dis- 
tilled liquors.  Few  now  have  any  conception  of 
the  formidable  odds  against  which  the  proclaimers 
of  such  a  doctrine  then  had  to  contend.  The  use 
of  strong  drinks  was  not  only,  as  already  indicated, 
intrenched  in  the  strong  fortress  of  fashion,  of  the 
conventional  laws  of  social  intercourse,  hilarity,  and 
hospitality ;  it  was  supposed  to  be  absolutely 
necessary  to  health,  vigor,  and  ability  to  endure 
the  fatigues  of  ordinary  labor.  It  was  supposed  to 
be  unsafe  for  the  husbandman,  the  mechanic,  the 
artisan,  to  pursue  the  ordinary  avocations  of  life 
without  the  help  of  this  fiery  stimulus.  These 
were  the  honest  convictions  of  the  people,  of  the 
staunchest  pillars  of  society,  the  purest  and  most 


11 

intelligent  Christians.  Add  to  all  this,  the  im- 
patience of  appetite,  and  the  vast  pecuniary  in- 
terests involved  in  the  traffic  in  such  drinks,  then 
prosecuted  by  members  of  the  church  as  freely  as 
others,  and  you  may  form  some  conception  of  the 
tremendous  antagonism  which  the  first  assailants 
of  temperate  drinking  and  promoters  of  total  absti- 
nence were  compelled  to  confront ;  a  conception 
hardly  possible  for  those  to  realize,  whose  life  does 
not  run  back  through  nearly  two  generations. 

These  beverages  had  installed,  nay,  enthroned 
themselves  in  the  chief  places  on  all  occasions- 
social,  political,  ecclesiastical.  Rev.  Dr.  Bacon,  of 
New  Haven,  in  a  discourse  delivered  upon  the 
fortieth  anniversary  of  his  installation,  which  oc- 
curred in  March,  1825,  states  that,  among  the  so- 
ciety charges  of  expense,  in  connection  with  that 
solemnity,  was  one  for  the  liquors  furnished  at  the 
installation  dinner.  The  first  recollection  which  I 
have  of  hearing  the  name  of  Nathaniel  Hewit,  was 
when,  during  that  very  year,  he  preached  one  of 
his  great  Temperance  discourses  in  Dr.  Bacon's 
pulpit,  which  provoked  a  loud  outcry  that  he  was 
beside  himself — a  fanatic,  a  magnificent  genius  and 
orator  run  mad — and  this  too  from  those  who,  in 
large  numbers,  speedily  embraced  his  views  and 
rallied  to  his  support.  In  short,  there  was  precisely 
that  infatuation,  and  delirium,  and  tyranny  of  ap- 
petite, habit,  custom,  misguided  conviction,  preju- 
dice, fashion,  avarice,  arrayed  against  all  efforts 


12 

to  disturb  practices  which  were  sweeping  away  the 
flower  of  the  people,  that  required  nothing  less 
than  the  dauntless  courage,  the  unsparing  fidelity, 
the  thunderbursts  of  eloquence,  almost  preternatu- 
.ral,  all  this  and  nothing  less,  which  Dr.  Hewit 
brought  to  bear,  to  break  them  down.  Thus  alone 
could  even  a  beginning  be  made  in  arresting  the 
strides  of  this  dreadful  vice,  which  was  fast  turning 
the  country  into  an  "  abomination  of  desolation." 

The  American  Temperance  Society,  then  recently 
formed,  for  the  suppression  of  this  gigantic  evil, 
was  not  slow  to  perceive  this  ;  and  its  commit- 
tee of  most  sagacious  men,  after  casting  about  long 
and  anxiously  for  a  man  best  qualified  to  storm  the 
mighty  ramparts  behind  which  it  was  intrenched, 
settled  with  a  singular,  but  quite  natural  unanimity 
upon  Dr.  Hewit.  They  accordingly  called  him  to 
this  great  work. 

He  first  served  them,  temporarily,  for  five 
months  in  the  year  1827.  He  at  this  time  visited 
numerous  principal  places  in  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania  ;  organized 
many  Temperance  societies  ;  and  widely  inoculated 
the  public  mind  with  the  doctrines  of  total  absti- 
nence. He  also  appeared  before  some  of  the  lead- 
ing ecclesiastical  bodies  of  the  country,  and  pre- 
sented the  cause  with  a  power,  which  soon  enlisted 
the  adhesion  and  earnest  advocacy  of  the  great 
mass  of  evangelical  ministers  and  church  officers  in 
the  land.  This  was  a  great  step  towards  ultimate 


13 

triumph  in  the  church  and  the  world.  The  success 
of  this  temporary  agency  only  proved  the  impor- 
tance of  securing  his  services  more  permanently. 
He  was  accordingly  urged  to  resign  his  pastoral 
charge,  and  give  himself  wholly  and  permanently 
to  this  work. 

Xot  without  great  hesitation  and  pain  did  he 
consent  to  tear  himself  from  the  pastorate,  the  peo- 
ple, loving  and  beloved,  the  whole  work  and  field, 
to  which  he  was  so  tenderly  attached.  Yet,  after 
due  consultation,  meditation  and  prayer,  he  felt 
that  necessity  was  laid  upon  him,  and  that  he  must 
obey  the  call  as  a  call  of  God.  This  was  the  great 
sacrifice  of  his  life,  to  take  up  the  burdens  and 
trials  of  itinerant  lecturing,  in  exchange  for  the 
home  and  study  and  pulpit  and  flock  he  so  loved. 
But,  once  satisfied  that  it  was  the  will  of  God,  he 
neither  shrunk  from  it,  nor  fainted  under  it.  He 
consulted  not  with  flesh  and  blood.  He,  however, 
only  committed  himself  to  it  for  a  limited  period- 
three  years — until  the  public  mind  should  be  roused 
from  its  lethargy,  an  ample  supply  of  co-laborers 
enlisted,  and  organizations  formed,  so  that  the  ref- 
ormation would  go  forward  of  its  own  momentum, 
without  further  impressing  his  whole  time  and 
power  into  its  exclusive  service.  He  was  accord- 
ino-lv  dismissed  from  the  church  in  Fairfield  to 

o  «/ 

enter  on  this  work,  December  18,  1827. 

He  at  once  addressed  himself  to  it  with  the  spirit 
alike  of  a  hero  and  a  martyr,  and  prosecuted  it 


14 

with  amazing  ability  and  success.  Far  and  wide, 
as  he  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and 
judgment  to  come,  with  invincible  logic,  with 
"blood  earnestness,'7  with  fearless  fidelity,  with 
torrents — often  cataracts — of  burning  eloquence, 
he  moved,  and  fired,  and  electrified  the  people. 
The  reform  made  rapid  headway.  It  enlisted  the 
great  majority  of  the  moral  and  Christian  portion 
of  society,  the  aged  and  the  young,  reclaiming 
many,  if  not  from  intemperance,  at  least  from  its 
verge,  and  guardiug  multitudes  against  it.  Of  the 
astounding  eloquence  and  prodigious  effects  of  these 
discourses,  I  have  often  heard,  in  forms  and  from 
quarters  so  various,  as  to  leave  little  doubt  that 
what  Luther  was  to  the  Reformation,  Whitfield  to 
the  Revival  of  1740,  Wesley  to  primitive  Method- 
ism, that  was  Nathaniel  He  wit  to  the  early  Tem- 
perance reformation.* 

By  his  great  and  exhausting  labors,  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  in  this  cause,  he  was  at  length 
worn  down,  and  his  nervous  and  digestive  system 
greatly  depressed.  Finding  the  Temperance  move- 
ment successfully  inaugurated,  he  craved  a  return 
to  his  first  love,  the  office  and  duties  of  a  Christian 
pastor  and  Gospel  preacher.  The  Second  Congre- 
gational Church  and  Society  of  Bridgeport,  then 
recently  formed,  were  only  too  glad  to  secure  the 
services  of  so  eminent  a  man.  He  was  only  de- 
lighted to  be  welcomed  back  to  the  region  of  his 
former  labor  and  love. 

*  For  decisive  testimonies  to  this,  see  Appendix  A. 


15 

He  was  installed  pastor  of  that  church,  Decem- 
ber 1,  1830  ;  Dr.  Woods,  of  Andover,  preaching 
the  sermon,  and  in  behalf  of  the  American  Tem- 
perance Society,  bearing  the  strongest  testimony  to 
the  zeal,  power,  and  success  with  which  Dr.  Hewit 
had  advanced  the  cause  intrusted  to  him. 

Soon  after,  he  was  sorely  afflicted  in  the  death 
of  his  excellent  wife.  She  died  January  4,  1831 
Rev.  Dr.  Bacon,  who  had  been  in  early  life  an  in- 
timate in  Dr.  Hewit's  household,  writes:  "One 
incident  of  her  dying  experience  I  have  always 
remembered,  (as  reported  to  me  at  the  time,)  for 
it  seems  to  be  an  instance  of  that  forgetfulness  of 
self  which  was  so  characteristic  of  her  life.  When 
death  was  understood  to  be  near — perhaps  it  was 
the  last  day  of  her  consciousness — prayer  was  about 
to  be  offered  at  her  bedside,  and  her  husband  or 
some  friend  asked  her  what  Scripture  should  be 
read  for  her  support  and  comfort  in  view  of  death. 
'Read  "The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God," 
was  her  answer." 

He  made  a  powerful  speech  in  behalf  of  Temper- 
ance, and  especially  against  the  traffic  in  ardent 
spirits  before  the  New  York  City  Temperance  So- 
ciety, at  the  Anniversaries  in  New  York  on  the 
following  May.*  A  liberal  friend  of  the  cause,f  at 
or  about  this  time,  offered  to  pay  his  expenses  if  he 
would  go  to  England,  and  assist  in  initiating  the 

*  For  an  extract  from  this  speech,  see  Appendix  B. 
f  John  Tappan,  Esq.,  of  Boston. 


16 

Reform  in  that  country.  He  accepted  the  offer, 
and  went  at  the  very  short  notice  of  four  days, 
upon  the  advice  of  Drs.  Woods,  Church,  Cornelius, 
and  others,  being  moved  by  the  hope  of  recruiting 
his  health,  then  greatly  shattered  by  the  exhaust- 
ing labors  of  his  Temperance  agency,  and  the  desire 
to  give  the  needed  impetus  to  the  beginnings  of  the 
movement  in  the  Old  World.  He  sailed  for  Eng- 
land, May  18,  and  arrived  in  London,  June  28. 
He  attended  a  meeting  at  Exeter  Hall,  June  29, 
the  day  after  his  arrival  in  London,  and  made  an 
address.  He  is  reported  to  have  introduced  him- 
self to  his  audience  on  this  occasion  by  saying, 
amid  other  prefatory  remarks,  "Although  my  be- 
ing began  in  New  England,  I  am  of  old  English 
origin,  and  British  blood,  in  mingled  streams  of 
English  and  Irish,  runs  through  my  veins.  If, 
therefore,  I  should  be  too  free,  remember  my  Eng- 
lish blood,  and  if  I  should  err,  remember  my  Irish 
blood/'  On  July  19,  he  was  present  and  assisted 
at  the  formation  of  the  British  arid  Foreign  Tem- 
perance Society,  thus  witnessing  the  accomplish- 
ment of  one  great  object  of  his  foreign  tour.  He 
then  visited  Paris,  returned  to  London,  and  pro- 
ceeded thence  to  Birmingham  and  Liverpool.  He 
startled  many  crowded  audiences  by  his  electric 
appeals  to  the  heart  and  conscience,  the  reason  and 
Christian  principle  of  his  hearers.  An  English 
journal,  in  attempting  to  report  or  give  an  account 
of  one  of  his  addresses,  cut  the  whole  short,  assign- 


17 

ing  as  the  reason,  that  it  was  "  impossible  to  print 
thunder  and  lightning." 

Meanwhile,  during  his  absence,  another  sore  be- 
reavement had  fallen  upon  him.  His  eldest  child, 
Rebecca,  died  at  the  house  of  her  uncle  in  New 
IJaven,  on  the  31st  of  July.  He  received  tidings 
of  this  by  letter  at  Liverpool,  September  2.  He 
then  relinquished  his  intended  visit  to  Scotland, 
and  returned  home,  arriving  November  1,  after  a 
tempestuous  voyage  of  forty-two  days. 

The  following  statement  of  Dr.  Bacon  represents 
not  only  Dr.  Hewit's  feelings  in  reference  to  his 
experiences,  labors  and  trials  during  the  years  of 
his  Temperance  agency,  but  also  certain  sides  of 
the  man,  perhaps  as  vividly  as  any  formal  portrait- 
ure can  do. 

"I  think  it  was  after  his  return  from  England 
that  Dr.  Hewit,  speaking  about  the  loss  of  his  wife, 
and  then  of  his  daughter  so  soon  afterwards,  ad- 
verted to  the  great  trial  which  he  felt  in  being  so 
much  and  so  long  separated  from  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren while  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  American 
Temperance  Society.  He  left  them  only  because 
a  necessity  was  laid  upon  him  ;  and  '  all  the  while,' 
he  said,  '  I  was  like  the  milch-kine  that  drew  the 
ark  of  God,  when  their  calves  were  shut  up  at 
home,  and  that  went  along  the  highway  lowing  as 
they  went.' ' 

While  it  required  the  medicaments  of  time  and 
divine  grace  to  heal  such  wounds,  yet  Providence 
2 


18 

speedily  opened  the  way  for  him  measurably  to 
repair  these  great  breaches,  and  again  to  turn  into 
brightness  his  clouded  and  desolated  home.  He 
was  married  again  to  Miss  Susan  Eliot,  of  Fairfield, 
November  14, 1831.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Rev. 
Andrew  Eliot,  one  of  his  honored  predecessors  as 
pastor  of  the  church  in  that  place,  of  which  she 
was  an  exemplary  member.  She  died  after  a  pro- 
tracted, lingering,  painful  sickness,  leaving  him  to 
a  second  widowhood,  on  May  1,  1857,  nearly  ten 
years  ago.  She  was  a  lady  of  genuine  piety,  and 
of  signal  prudence,  dignity,  and  kindness.  Intelli- 
gent, true  and  faithful,  her  husband  surely  trusted 
her,  and  she  adorned  her  station  as  the  wife  of  a 
Christian  pastor  and  the  mother  of  his  children. 
One  daughter  was  the  fruit  of  this  marriage.  She 
received  the  name  so  endeared  by  love  most  tender 
and  sorrow  most  sacred — EEBECCA.  She  too  died 
at  about  the  same  age  as  his  first  daughter  of  the 
same  name.  And  so  he  mourned  for  three  REBEC- 
CAS, torn  from  him  by  death. 

When  he  resumed  his  pastoral  duties  among  the 
people  over  whom  he  had  been  installed,  the  con- 
gregation steadily  grew,  under  his  powerful  minis- 
trations, in  knowledge,  grace,  and  numbers. 

Of  the  affluence  of  evangelical  and  experimental 
truth  ;  of  scriptural  exposition  ;  of  fresh  and  orig- 
inal thought ;  of  his  kindling  eloquence  and  un- 
flinching fidelity  ;  of  his  tenderness  and  heavenly 
consolation  administered  in  affliction  and  distress 


19 

in  that  sphere,  many  of  you  know  far  better  than  I 
can  tell  you.  His  ministry  there  continued  pros- 
perous and  peaceful  for  more  than  twenty  years. 
Then,  a  difference  arising  in  the  congregation,  now 
grown  to  be  larger,  in  regard  to  the  proper  course 
to  be  pursued  in  procuring  assistance  for  their 
venerated  pastor,  the  problem  was  at  length  solved 
by  a  division  into  two  churches— the  one  retaining 
the  old  organization,  and  calling  a  new  minister  ; 
the  other  forming  a  new  organization  in  connection 
with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  0.  S.f  and  retaining 
their  old,  revered,  and  beloved  pastor,  whose  min- 
istrations they  could  not  consent  to  forego.  He 
was  dismissed  from  the  former  church  Sept.  21st, 
1853,  and  installed  over  the  latter  Oct.  31st  of  the 
same  year.  Here  he  continued  to  preach  the  Word 
and  feed  the  flock  of  God,  till,  well  advanced  to- 
wards fourscore,  increasing  infirmities  constrained 
him  to  ask  assistance  and  relief.  When  he  reached 
the  age  of  seventy  he  tendered  his  resignation,  but 
his  people  refused  to  accept  it,  being  unwilling  to 
lose  his  valued  services.  And  when  God  sent  him 
a  colleague  and  successor — at  last  granted  by  his 
congregation  in  obedience  to  his  pressing  request 
—a  successor  well  beloved  and  trusted,  he  cor- 
dially handed  over  to  him  the  charge.  The  mutual 
confidence,  love,  and  helpfulness  between  him  and 
his  junior  colleague  constituted  a  chief  solace  of  his 
last  days.  After  an  honored  ministry  of  more  than 
half  a  century,  followed  by  a  brief  interval  of  rest, 


20 

and  of  alternations  between  health  and  disease,  he 
has  fallen  asleep,  all  but  an  octogenarian.  "  Blessed 
are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord,  from  hence- 
forth :  Yea,  saith  the  Spirit,  that  they  may  rest 
from  their  labors  ;  and  their  works  do  follow  them." 

This  brief  biographical  sketch  would  fall  short  of 
the  truth,  if  it  failed  to  record  Dr.  Hewit's  attitude 
in  the  theological  controversies  which  have  agi- 
tated the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  churches 
for  the  past  forty  years,  and  especially  at  and  after 
the  time  of  his  settlement  in  Bridgeport.  In  these 
he  took  a  decided  and  influential  part.  In  these, 
too,  as  in  other  things,  he  uttered  no  uncertain 
sound.  He  ranged  himself  with  those  known  as 
Old  School.  He  withstood  to  the  last,  and  to  the 
utmost,  all  doctrinal  innovations,  believing  the 
Westminster  symbols  to  contain  the  s}Tstem  of  doc- 
trine taught  in  Holy  Scriptures,  and  lying  at  the 
foundation  of  the  soul's  life.  His  voice  was  as 
thunder  in  summoning  men  to  the  defence  of  the 
ancient  doctrine  against  all  assailants.  This  cost 
him  the  more,  as  it  separated  him  from  some  who 
had  been  his  chiefest  friends.  But  herein  he  knew 
no  man  after  the  flesh.  I  will  not  say  that  the 
former  East  Windsor,  now  Hartford,  Seminary 
owes  its  original  founding,  and  subsequent  mainte- 
nance, under  threatening  financial  difficulties,  to 
Dr.  Hewit ;  but  I  will  say,  if  this  be  due,  under 
God,  to  any  man — to  him  more. 

It  now  remains  that,  so  far  as  practicable  in  the 


21 

time  at  command,  I  present  a  brief  portraiture  of 
the  leading  characteristics  of  this  wonderful  man. 

His  physique,  the  whole  shaping  and  propor- 
tions of  his  frame,  his  countenance,  head,  and 
entire  physiognomy,  bespoke  an  extraordinary 
man.  Seen  first,  whether"  in  the  face  or  the  back, 
or  sidewise,  that  massive  frame,  that  prodigious 
breadth  of  chest,  and  from  shoulder  to  shoulder,  at 
once  arrested  the  attention  of  strangers,  and  led 
to  the  inquiry,  who  he  was.  Herein  were  stored 
that  intense  vitality  and  amazing  power  which  bore 
him  up  under  his  great  sorrows  and  trials,  and  on- 
ward through  various  perils  and  exhausting  toils, 
till  he  neared  fourscore  years.  His  great  head, 
"a  very  dome  of  thought,"  his  deep  and  broad 
forehead,  projecting  temples,  heavy  eyebrows  ;  his 
eye  so  quick  with  the  play  of  genius  ;  the  strong, 
and  ofttimes  even  terrible  earnestness  beaming  out 
in  his  whole  expression,  at  once  marked  him  as  no 
common  man — nay,  a  man  who  rarely  has  a  peer  ; 
such,  indeed,  as  one  sees  no  two  specimens  of  in 
his  life.  One  of  our  distinguished  civilians  once 
said  to  me,  that  "  he  looked  like  an  emperor  ;" 
and  another,  who  had  little  sympathy  with  his 
views,  said,  that  "  Dr.  He  wit  always  looked  to  him 
like  one  of  the  old  prophets  or  reformers.''  This, 
with  his  unequalled  voice,  gave  him  a  mighty 
presence  before  public  assemblies. 

His  majestic  frame,  so  typical  of  his  intellectual, 
moral,  and  spiritual  strength,  although  it  was  the 


22 

repository  of  prodigious  vitality  and  power,  at  the 
same  time  had  a  certain  defect  in  the  inward  ad- 
justment and  attempering  of  the  organs  of  life, 
which  produced  much  jar,  and  friction,  and  chafing 
in  the  working  of  the  vital  machinery.  He  had  a 
morbid,  nervous  sensitiveness,  irregular  digestion, 
and  other  difficulties,  which  bowed  him  down,  and 
made  him  to  feel  the  chastening  of  the  Lord  all  his 
days.  This  often  degenerated  into  hypochondria, 
which  he  ever  felt  to  be  his  thorn  in  the  flesh,  and 
no  less  needful  for  him  than  Paul's  was  for  him. 
This  also  had  much  to  do  with  any  of  those  less 
genial  manifestations  which  sometimes  pained  him- 
self as  well  as  others.  And  I  may  as  well  say 
here,  once  for  all,  that  if  any  judge  that  the  out- 
lines of  his  character,  which  I  am  now  about  to 
give,  need  shading  or  toning  down  to  any  extent, 
any  such  drawback  was  largely  due  to  this  dark 
trouble  of  his  body  and  his  soul.  This,  taken  in 
connection  with  another  thing,  will  largely  explain 
any  unpleasant  impressions  which  such  as  differed 
from  him  may  have  formed,  in  regard  to  what  they 
may  have  supposed  an  undue  severity  or  harsh- 
ness in  his  character.  Dr.  Hewit,  as  I  have  said, 
was  a  mighty  man.  His  whole  being  intellectual, 
sensitive,  moral,  had  a  vast  momentum  in  it.  He 
could  not  think,  or  feel,  or  purpose,  or  act,  without 
a  huge  quantity  of  motion  ;  without  being  energetic 
and  demonstrative  :  he  could  do  nothing  feebly  or 

•/ 

tamely  ;  hence  all  his  feelings  and  moods,  genial 


23 

and  ungenial,  were  conspicuous,  and  showed  their 
utmost.  Hence  too  often  arose  exaggerated  im- 
pressions in  regard  to  his  real  feelings. 

His  intellect  was  simply  gigantic  ;  had  it  been 
free  from  the  clogs  of  nervous  and  other  bodily 
suffering  to  which  I  have  referred,  this  would  have 
been  more  fully  evinced  by  enduring  printed  mon- 
uments. But  the  pen  was  irksome  to  him,  and 
cramped  the  free  play  of  his  powers.  To  a  mem- 
ory most  capacious  and  retentive,  was  added  ex- 
traordinary intuitive  insight ;  and  to  this  a  high 
power  of  generalization  and  logical  reasoning  ;  of 
clear,  profound,  concatenated  argument.  I  have 
never  known  a  mind  more  capable  of  disentangling 
the  intricate  and  clearing  the  obscure,  and  of  con- 
firming its  conclusions  by  a  chain  of  compact,  rigid, 
adamantine  logic.  But  the  power  of  reasoning  was 
equalled,  even  surpassed,  by  the  splendor  and  opu- 
lence of  his  imagination,  which  irradiated  his 
logic,  and  threw  over  the  dry  skeleton  of  mere  ar- 
gument those  living  flesh  and  blood  hues,  and  that 
magnificence  of  illustration,  which  never  failed  to 
instruct  and  delight.  Indeed,  many  were  so  im- 
pressed and  even  dazzled  by  the  brilliance  of  his 
imagination,  that  thay  lost  sight  of  and  underrated 
his  logical  power,  which,  while  it  was  only  illu- 
minated, they  were  fain  to  think  was  overshadowed 
by  it.  But  this  was  a  mistake.  The  greatness 
of  the  one  did  not  belittle,  it  rather  vivified  the 
other.  In  these  powers,  thus  blended  and  inter- 


24 

working,  we  find  the  resources  of  that  electric 
oratory  which  so  often  instructed  and  kindled 
the  popular  heart.  Judge  Hopkins,  of  New 
York,  characterized  his  eloquence  as  "logic  set  on 
fire." 

To  these  were  added  a  wonderful  command  of 
plain,  pithy,  and  graphic  English,  which  enabled  him 
to  say  strong  things  in  a  strong  way,  and  the  best 
things  in  the  best  way.  And  to  articulate  all  this, 
God  gave  him  a  voice  which,  in  its  best  estate,  was 
unmatched  for  compass,  power  and  melody.  The 
uniform  testimony  of  all  who  knew  him  from  the 
first  was,  that  in  consequence  of  being  so  severely 
taxed  during  his  Temperance  agency,  his  voice  lost 
much  of  its  original  power  and  sweetness,  which  it 
never  fully  regained.  I  have  heard  of  amazing 
effects  produced  by  his  mere  vocalization. 

Some  time  after  his  settlement  in  Fairfield,  the 
late  Judge  G-ould,  one  of  the  most  eminent  jurists 
the  country  ever  produced,  was  affected  to  tears 
simply  by  hearing  Dr.  Hewit,  before  not  known 
to  him,  read  a  hymn.  At  a  great  Sunday  School 
celebration  on  the  Battery,  in  New  York,  owing  to 
some  imperfection  in  the  arrangements,  it  was 
found  impossible  to  arrest  noise  and  disorder. 
Dr.  Hewit  was  called  on  to  meet  the  difficulty.  He 
rose  and  calmly  proclaimed,  "  Let  there  be  a  great 
silence  ;"  and  the  whole  throng  was  hushed  into 
deathlike  stillness. 

Not  less  marvellous  was  his  eloquence.     The  late 


25 

i 

Roger  M.  Sherman,  himself  one  of  the  first  orators 
and  jurists  of  the  country,  and  pronounced  by  high 
authority  to  be  in  his  own  profession  second  only 
to  Daniel  Webster  in  New  England,  sat  under  Dr. 
Hewit's  preaching  during  the  ten  years  of  his  min- 
istry in  Fairfield.  He  has  told  me  that  he  had 
heard  the  noblest  efforts  of  Drs.  D wight,  Mason, 
and  the  other  pulpit  celebrities  of  our  land  ;  but, 
added  he,  "I  have  often  listened  to  flights  and 
surges  of  eloquence  from  Dr.  He  wit  that  I  have 
never  heard  equalled  by  mortal  man."  A  distin- 
guished Unitarian  preacher,  who  heard  a  series  of 
sermons  from  him,  in  1836,  in  support  of  doctrines 
which  the  former  greatly  disrelished,  said  that  Dr. 
Hewit  had  no  superior  as  a  reasoner  and  orator, 
and  that  if  he  were  at  the  bar,  or  in  Congress,  he 
would  be  the  peer  of  Webster  and  Clay.  Rev. 
Daniel  A.  Clark,  himself  distinguished  for  pulpit 
eloquence,  said  of  a  Temperance  address  delivered 
by  Dr.  Hewit  in  Amherst,  "There  fell  great  hail 
for  the  space  of  two  hours,  and  every  stone  was 
about  the  weight  of  a  talent." 

Such  testimonies  might  be  indefinitely  multi- 
plied.* But  enough  ;  I  must  hasten  forward  to  call 
attention  to  his  MORAL  AND  CHRISTIAN  CHARACTER, 
which,  after  all,  was  his  crowning  gift  and  orna- 
ment. He  was  a  man  naturally  of  intense  moral 
convictions  and  deepest  earnestness  of  character. 
It  ^Yas  not  in  his  nature  to  be  untrue  to  his  princi- 

*  For  more  of  them,  see  Appendix. 


26 

pies.  He  was  bound  to  go  wherever  they  led  him. 
He  had  a  deep  sense  of  personal  sinfulness,  guilt, 
helplessness,  dependence  on  sovereign  and  al- 
mighty grace  for  deliverance  from  sin,  and  per- 
sonal justification  before  God.  His  assurance  was 
equally  strong  of  the  sufficiency,  freeness,  com- 
pleteness of  salvation  through  the  blood  and  right- 
eousness and  Spirit  of  Christ,  for  all  who  will  ac- 
cept it.  So  his  whole  life  in  the  flesh  was  one 
of  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  loved  him 
and  gave  himself  for  him.  In  this  faith  he  lived 
and  died,  and  wrestled  and  conquered  ;  and  his 
communion  was  with  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

This  faith  was  the  centre  and  circumference  of 
his  theology,  his  preaching,  and  his  teaching. 
Whatever  else  in  theology  he  held  or  maintained 
was,  to  his  mind,  vitally  implicated  with  this,  and 
stood  or  fell  with  it.  This  determined  not  only 
his  private  and  pastoral  life,  but  his  course  in 
public  controversies.  "Whether  he  always  rightly 
conceived  the  views  of  antagonists  or  not,  it  is  out 
of  place  here  to  discuss.  What  I  mean  to  say,  and 
saying,  know  whereof  I  affirm,  is,  that  he  was  actu- 
ated in  all  the  conflicts  of  his  public  life  by  no 
lower  motive  than  a  holy  jealousy  of  God's  truth, 
and  honor,  and  glory,  and  a  desire  to  preserve  in- 
tact and  entire  that  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  which  is 
according  to  godliness,  and  is  the  life  of  the  soul's 
life.  His  theology  and  his  experience  in  his  inner 
life  mutually  interpenetrated  and  shaped  each  other. 


27 

As  to  what  this  theology  was,  we  describe  it  in 
the  shortest  and  truest  way,  a  way  perfectly  intel- 
ligible and  unambiguous  withal,  when  we  say,  first, 
that  it  involved  the  infallible  inspiration  and  bind- 
ing authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, the  doctrines  of  the  Westminster  Catechisms, 
in  their  literal  import,  as  a  true  summation  of  the 
teachings  of  that  word.  In  short,  he  was  a  sin- 
cere, tenacious,  unbending  adherent  of  the  Re- 
formed and  Puritan  theology,  and  a  valiant  and 
mighty  defender  of  it.  In  this  he  never  wavered  ; 
and  his  judgment  as  to  where  and  how  this  could 
be  best  maintained  in  its  purity  and  integrity,  is 
the  true  key  to  his  whole  career,  including  all  its 
vicissitudes,  relations,  and  aspects,  controversial 
and  ecclesiastical.  He  solemnly  affirmed  during 
his  last  sickness,  that  he  held  fast  the  gospel  of 
Christ  which  he  had  professed  and  preached  so 
many  years  ;  and  that  he  did  not  regret  the  doc- 
trinal attitude  which  he  had  maintained,  believing 
the  Westminster  standards  to  harmonize  fully  with 
the  Word  of  God. 

When  Dr.  Hewit  was  convinced  that  any  given 
course  was  right  and  pleasing  to  God,  not  earth 
nor  hell  could  swerve  him  from  it.  This  you  know 
full  well.  When  he  had  raised  an  opposition  to 
himself  in  his  parish  by  his  early  sermons  on  Tem- 
perance, he  faced  it  with  a  memorable  discourse, 
which  he  commenced  thus  :  "  I  have  known  pov- 
erty ;  I  am  not  afraid  of  that.  I  have  felt  the  finger 


28 

of  scorn  ;  T  am  not  afraid  of  that.  I  have  been  slan- 
dered by  wicked  men  and  misapprehended  by 
good  men  ;  I  am  not  afraid  of  that.  I  have  known 
what  it  is  to  be  under  the  wrath  and  curse  of  God  ; 
of  that  I  am  afraid !"  The  very  timbers  of  the 
house  seemed  aghast  with  awe.  When  preaching 
on  Temperance  in  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and  cautioned 
to  be  careful  about  hitting  slavery,  his  instantane- 
ous answer  was,  "T  shall  not  bow -down  to  your 
Dagon !" 

One  of  our  great  millionaire  speculators  hap- 
pened once  to  hear  him  preach.  He  said  that  a 
sermon  of  two  hours  "seemed  hardly  twenty  min- 
utes ;"  and  further,  "had  that  man  lived  in  the 
days  of  the  fagot  and  stake,  he  would  have  been 
burned !"  But  I  will  not  expatiate  on  what  you 
know  so  well ;  and  those  that  knew  him,  know  as 
surely,  that  while  his  courage  was  heroic,  and 
feared  not  the  face  of  clay,  he  was  nevertheless 
one  of  the  humblest  of  men.  The  following  mem- 
oranda, kindly  furnished  me  by  his  colleague  and 
successor,  are  but  fresh  exemplifications  of  what 
those  familiar  with  him  have  well  known  to  enter 
into  his  habitual  experience. 

"  The  last  time  that  he  walked  do\vn  town  he 
called  at  the  office  of  a  friend,  and  in  the  course 
of  conversation  spoke  to  this  effect :  1 1  had,  last 
night,  an  overwhelming  sense  of  my  vileness  in  the 
sight  of  the  holy  One.  It  kept  me  awake  for  hours, 
and  forced  me  to  cry :  Look  not  on  me !  look  not 


29 

on  me,  but  look  on  thy  glorified  Son,  at  thy  right 
hand !' 

"  To  one  who  visited  him  in  his  sick  bed-cham- 
ber, and  said  to  him,  'I  should  probably  have 
gone  down  to  a  drunkard's  grave,  but  for  one  of 
your*  sermons  on  Temperance  to  which  I  listened.' 
He  replied,  'Yes,  we  read  that  a  goose  was  once 
the  means  of  saving  Rome  !' 

41  Dr.  H.  once  remarked  to  me  that  he  had  been 
greatly  dependent  for  encouragement  in  the  min- 
istry upon  words  of  commendation  from  pious  and 
judicious  persons.  On  more  than  one  occasion, 
when  he  had  almost  determined  to  abandon  the 
pulpit,  he  was  led  to  take  heart  and  go  forward 
by  the  assurance  coming  from  some  unexpected 
quarter,  that  his  efforts  were  not  altogether  in 


vain." 


Need  I  say  that  he  was  a  man  of  prayer,  and 
mighty  in  it  ?  He  dwelt  in  the  secret  place  of  the 
most  High,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty,  and 
in  the  very  Holy  of  Holies.  And  how  wonderful 
were  these  sacred  outpourings  in  the  closet,  the 
family,  the  familiar  meeting,  the  pulpit!  How 
vain  would  it  be  to  describe  them !  You  know 
them  better  than  any  words  can  tell  you.  I  can 
only  say  that  I  have  heard  public  prayers  of- 
fered by  him,  which  I  have  not  seen  equalled  in 
human  language.  I  recollect  once  at  a  funeral  of  a 
minister's  wife,  in  a  neighboring  congregation,  he 
followed  a  sermon  preached  by  me  with  a  prayer, 


30 

which  seemed  to  lift  us  all  from  the  earth  and  the 
earthy,  to  the  third  heavens  where  God  resides. 

But  the  time  hurries  me  to  his  more  private  and 
personal  relations.  As  a  husband,  father,  kins- 
man, friend,  he  was  a  model  of  Christian  love, 
faithfulness,  patriarchal  dignity  blended  with  the 
simplicity  and  playfulness  of  a  child.  Here  again 
I  speak  from  personal  knowledge,  having  enjoyed 
the  most  intimate  relations  with  him  in  his  own 
household. 

His  conversational  powers  fully  equalled,  even  if 
they  did  not  surpass,  his  powers  of  public  teaching 
and  address.  And  I  question,  if  the  influence  ex- 
erted by  him  in  this  way,  were  not  quite  equal  to 
that  achieved  by«his  public  efforts.  His  power  to 
enlighten,  interest,  fascinate,  and  enchain  in  private 
intercourse,  when  he  was  in  his  finer  moods,  was 
quite  unrivalled.  In  this  manner  he  exerted  vast 
influence  in  two  ways.  First,  in  personal  inter- 
course with  souls  exercised  with  concern  and  anx- 
iety, or  dejected  by  spiritual  distress  and  melan- 
choly. In  this  he  was  incomparable.  Having 
been  himself,  through  his  physical  temperament,  at 
times  reduced  to  religious  melancholy,  and  found 
the  way  of  escape  from  it  through  Christ,  he  knew 
how  to  comfort  souls  similarly  distressed,  "with 
the  comfort  wherewith  he  was-  comforted  of  God." 
He  was  resorted  to  by  persons  thus  afflicted  far  and 
near — from  neighboring  parishes  and  from  more  dis- 
tant places.  And  many  are  the  souls,  through  the 


31 

land,  relieved  by  the  skill  with  which  he  has  ap- 
plied to  them  the  medication  of  the  Great  Physician, 
who  will  rise  up  and  call  him  blessed.  Seldom 
does  any  age  or  country  produce  a  man  who  was 
at  once  such  a  son  of  thunder  to  the  hardened  and 
presumptuous,  and  such  a  son  of  consolation  to 
wounded  and  contrite  spirits. 

Another  great  medium  of  this  private  personal 
agency  was  with  ministers  and  men  of  influence, 
whom  he  instructed  and  moulded  by  the  light  and 
power,  with  which  he  set  forth  high  truths  and 
formidable  questions  in  theology  and  casuistry. 
His  magnetic  power  over  such  can  be  understood 
only  by  those  who  felt  it.  He  planted  in  many 
such  the  seeds  of  immortal  truths,  and  not  a  few 
now  live  to  maintain  and  propagate — some  of  them 
in  high  stations — principles,  for  the  germs  of  which 
they  are,  under  God,  indebted  to  him.  So,  "  being 
dead  he  yet  speaketh." 

And  now  what  shall  I  say  more  ?  His  work  is 
done.  That  mighty  frame,  so  long  a  temple  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  lies  dead  before  us,  and  we  are  about 
to  commit  it  to  its  native  dust — to  be  evoked  in  im- 
mortal beauty  and  glory,  by  the  voice  of  the  arch- 
angel and  the  trump  of  God.  One  of  his  last  ut- 
terances, on  a  beautiful  morning,  was :  "  How  much 
more  beautiful  than  this  the  resurrection  morn." 
Again,  he,  with  his  household,  offered  prayer  for  all 
the  congregations  and  people,  including  their  chil- 
dren and  children's  children,  that  had  been  under 


32 


his  ministry — (who  does  not  crave  such  a  benedic- 
tion ?)— and  then  he  gradually  fell  asleep  in  Jesus. 
Not  he,  but  "  death  itself  there  dies."  He  has  gone 
to  dwell  with  Christ  in  Paradise.  Thither,  God, 
of  his  infinite  grace,  grant  that  we  may  all  follow 
him,  and  shine  with  him  in  bliss  and  glory  ever- 
more. 


APPENDIX. 


A.— Page  14. 

THE  following  appeared  many  years  ago  in  the 
New  York  Evangelist,  from  a  writer  of  a  series  of 
sketches  of  distinguished  advocates  of  Total  Absti- 
nence : 

"Many  years  ago,  one  Sabbath  evening,  the 
writer  went  into  the  Brick  Church,  (Rev.  Dr. 
Spring's,)  which  was  open  for  divine  worship.  We 
were  ignorant  of  the  occasion,  whether  it  was  an 
ordinary  or  a  special  service  ;  and  of  the  preacher^ 
whether  he  was  the  pastor  or  a  stranger.  After 
the  usual  introductory  services,  which  we  think 
were  conducted  b}r  the  pastor,  a  stranger  arose. 
We  were  not  probably  attracted  by  his  appearance 
or  manner  at  the  beginning,  nor  did  we  at  once  see 
the  drift  of  his  discourse  ;  but  as  he  proceeded,  he 
kindled  and  unfolded  his  theme  with  a  clear  and 
masterly  eloquence.  The  theme  was  an  unusual 
one.  We  had  never  heard  it  handled  in  the  pulpit 
before  —  it  was  the  evils  of  Intemperance.  The 
preacher  had  but  one  eye,  but  it  flashed  like  the 
evening  star  in  the  deep  heavens.  He  seemed  to 
labor  under  a  momentous  mission  which  he  had 
undertaken  alone,  putting  his  trust  in  God.  Like 


34 

Howard,  he  measured  a  great  woe  which  oppressed 
Tmmanity,  and  he  had  braced  himself  up  to  the 
great  work  of  removing  it.  Never  shall  we  forget 
that  discourse  ;  remarkable  alike  for  the  clearness 
of  its  statements,  the  boldness  of  its  positions,  the 
force  of  its  reasonings,  the  power  of  its  imagery, 
the  unction,  and  spirit-stirring  energy  of  its  deliv- 
ery. That  was  Nathaniel  Hewit's  first  sermon  in 
the  city  of  New  York  on  the  subject  of  his  great 
mission.  Before  we  left  our  seat  we  were  convinced, 
and  our  resolution  taken.  We  met  him  afterwards, 
when  he  went  through  the  land  assailing  the  evil 
under  every  form  and  degree  with  his  resistless 
eloquence,  and  aided  him  in  the  formation  of  at 
least  one  successful  Temperance  Society.  We  have 
heard  him  on  other  occasions,  and  have  watched 
the  spread  of  the  doctrines  which  he  promul- 
gated. We  believe  him  to  be  the  first  great  re- 
former in  this  field  of  labor  ;  and  if  any  man  is 
entitled  to  be  called  '  the  apostle  of  Temperance,' 
it  is  Nathaniel  Hewit." 

Extract  from  a  letter  from  Rev.  Mark  Hopkins, 
D.  D.,  President  of  Williams  College,  to  Rev.  Ed- 
ward W.  Hooker,  D.  D. : 

"  It  was,  I  believe,  the  first  time  this  community 
had  ever  been  addressed  on  that  subject,  and  the 
effect  was  most  extraordinary.  The  week  before, 
the  rum  traffic  had  been  undisturbed  ;  but  the 
Monday  after,  I  think  it  was.  every  store  in  town 


35 

stopped,  and  from  that  time  to  this  there  has  not 
been  a  store  here  where  it  has  been  sold.  The 
taverns  were  not  quite  so  prompt  in  stopping,  but 
they  soon  came  into  it ;  and  have  since  been  kept, 
and  for  the  most  part  honestly,  on  temperance 
principles.  The  sermons  came  on  the  community 
like  a  clap  of  thunder,  and  did  the  work  at  once. 
Nobody  with  whom  I  have  spoken  seems  to  re- 
member exactly  what  Dr.  Griffin  said  ;  but,  I  know 
there  was  a  current  report  of  his  saying,  '  It  was 
like  lightning  striking  on  one  side  and  the  other.' 
An  impression  so  powerful  has  seldom  been  made 
by  two  discourses.  And  aside  from  the  conversion 
of  souls,  which  I  have  no  doubt  has  been  the  indi- 
rect result,  I  know  of  no  instance  in  which  so  much 
and  so  permanent  good  has  been  done." 

Statement  of  Chief  Justice  Parker,  of  Massachu- 
setts : 

"I  should  think  the  change  was  more  thorough 
in  Berkshire  than  anywhere  else  ;  and  it  has  prob- 
ably been  more  aided  by  the  efforts  of  associations 
and  individuals.  Among  other  instruments,  the 
missionary  labors  of  a  Mr.  Hewit  are  spoken  of  as 
highly  efficacious.  This  gentleman  has  visited 
many  towns  ;  and  being  gifted  with  a  zeal  which 
knows  no  relaxation,  an  eloquence  which  cannot 
be  resisted,  he  has  produced  a  powerful  effect 
on  communities,  and  has  turned  some  of  the  most 
incorrigible  drunkards  from  the  evil  of  their  ways. 


36 

From  what  I  have  heard  of  this  gentleman,  and  his 
wonderful  success  in  this  good  cause,  I  should  de- 
nominate him  the  apostle  of  temperance." 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  New  York  City 
Temperance  Society,  publishing  in,  1829,  their 
"  Views  of  the  Temperance  Reformation,"  remark  : 

"  Some  years  before  the  American  Temperance 
Society  was  formed,  the  Rev.  Nathaniel  Hewit  had 
turned  his  attention  to  the  subject,  and  excited 
some  wonder  and  endured  much  obloquy  by  ad- 
vancing the  doctrine  of  total  abstinence,  as  afford- 
ing the  only  security  to  the  temperate,  and  the  only 
deliverance  to  the  intemperate.  Where  this  gen- 
tleman's private  character  is  known,  there  is  no 
need  of  the  testimony  which  every  honest  man  who 
knows  him  is  prepared  to  give,  to  the  strictness  of 
his  integrity,  the  purity  of  his  zeal,  the  consistency 
of  his  life,  and  his  earnest  efforts  for  the  best  inter- 
ests of  his  fellow-men.  The  success  which  has 
everywhere  attended  his  efforts,  evince  with  how 
much  ability  he  has  pleaded  the  cause  of  Temper- 
ance ;  and  shows,  better  than  a  thousand  lectures 
on  prudence,  the  wisdom  of  that  bold  and  uncom- 
promising attack  upon  the  evil,  which  he  adopted 
at  first  and  has  uniformly  continued.  Immedi- 
ately after  their  appointment,  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee engaged  Mr.  Hewit  to  labor  in  the  city  as 
long  as  he  could  be  spared  from  the  more  extensive 
plans  of  the  parent  society.  He  spent  several 


37 

weeks  among  us  ;  and  besides  public  addresses, 
preached  in  many  of  our  churches  ;  always  with 
acceptance  and  with  known  and  marked  success. 
The  effect  of  his  eloquent  appeals,  in  opening  men's 
minds  and  changing  their  habits,  is  without  a  par- 
allel among  us." 

A  correspondent  from  Baltimore,  describing  the 
effects  of  a  four-weeks  visit  of  Dr.  Hewit  to  that 
city  in  1830,  says  : 

"He  preached  in  the  churches  of  at  least  Jive 
denominations  ;  and  was  heard  by  individuals  of 
all.  He  preached  with  great  power  and  persua- 
sion ;  as  a  man  deeply  conscious  of  the  benevolence 
of  his  motives,  the  goodness  of  his  cause,  and  the 
immense  importance  of  its  success.  Multitudes 
have  heard  the  thunder  of  his  utterance,  and  many 
have  felt  the  lightning  of  his  argument." 

The  Rev.  Edward  W.  Hooker,  D.  D.,  observes  : 
"The  effect  of  Dr.  Hewit's  discourses,  not  only 
at  the  time  and  on  the  spot,  but  afterward,  and 
upon  the  surrounding  community,  through  the  re- 
port thereof,  was  such  as  might  be  expected  from 
eloquence  having  such  characteristics.  Not  only 
would  those  who  were  present  and  heard  him  be 
full  of  his  subject,  and  take  vivid  impression  of  his 
thoughts,  but  so  much  would  they  be  able  to  report 
to  others  of  what  they  had  heard,  and  so  strong 
were  the  impressions  thus  made  even  at  second 


38 

hand  upon  the  absent,  that  they  almost  seemed  to 
themselves  to  have  heard  him  with  their  own  ears. 
In  illustration  of  this  remark,  a  gentleman  high  in 

the  walks  of  learning,  and  at  the  head  of  one  of  our 

i 

New  England  colleges,  on  being  recently  asked  for 
his  reminiscences  and  impressions  of  the  discourses 
of  Dr.  Hewit,  delivered  in  the  place  of  his  residence 
in  the  year  1827,  remarks  in  a  letter  to  the  writer 
of  this  sketch :  '  A  curious  delusion  I  have  been 
in.  It  has  been  my  impression  for  a  long  time  that 
I  heard  these  discourses  of  Dr.  Hewit ;  but  on  com- 
paring dates,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  I  must 
have  come  to  confuse  the  impressions  I  had  re- 
ceived from  others  with  rny  own  recollections.' 
That  must  be  eloquence  indeed,  the  powerful  im- 
pressions of  which  are  so  vividly  and  impressively 
transferred  from  mind  to  mind." 


B.— Page  is. 

The  following  extract  from  this  speech  appeared 
in  the  Religious  Intelligencer  of  New  Haven  : 

"  The  speaker  desired  to  know  whether  all  pro- 
fessors of  religion,  now  engaged  in  the  traffic  or 
manufacture  of  distilled  spirits,  would  not  feel 
themselves  bound  by  a  sense  of  Christian  duty  to 
abandon  it,  if  it  could  be  done  at  a  trifling  sacri- 
fice."   "  You  admit  you  would  be  criminal  in 

refusing  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  a  few  dollars — but 


39 

if  any  number  of  dollars  are  to  turn  the  scale  and 
decide  your  course  of  conduct,  who  is  your  god  ? 
Is  it  Mammon,  or  is  it  Christ  ?  Robert  Walpole 
declared  that  every  man  had  his  price.  That  prof- 
ligate statesman,  moving  in  a  corrupt  court,  found 
that  the  vote  and  influence  of  almost  any  man  might 
be  purchased  at  some  price.  One  man  he  could 
purchase  at  fifty  guineas  ;  another  cost  him  a 
thousand ;  another,  ten  thousand.  Some  must  be 
bought  by  an  earldom ;  others  by  a  bishopric. 
Some  men  were  cheaper,  and  some  were  dearer. 
But  all  were  in  the  market  at  some  price.  Rob- 
ert Walpole,  like  all  others  who  trafficked  in 
the  souls  of  men,  learned  his  ethics  and  his  tac- 
tics from  the  arch-fiend,  who  well  knew  that 
almost  every  man  has  his  price  ;  who  could  com- 
pute the  price  of  Walpole  himself ;  and  who  once 
vainly  attempted  to  estimate  the  price  of  even  the 
Son  of  God,  when  he  sought  to  bribe  him  with  the 
offer  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  and  the  glory 
of  them.  Such  a  being  he  did  not  expect  to  secure 
at  a  meaner  price  ;  though  Judas,  he  knew,  could 
be  bought  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  Christian ! 
what  is  the  price  of  thy  soul  ?  Twenty  dollars  ?— 
fifty  ? — one  hundred  dollars  ?  Oh,  no  !  You  shud- 
der at  the  thought  of  selling  yourself  so  cheap. 
What,  then,  is  your  price  ?  Can  you  sacrifice  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars?  You  hesitate  —  you 
cannot  do  it.  The  bargain  then  is  closed,  and  you 
sell  your  soul  for  that  sum.'' 


A  """000609  "521     o" 


